Hi all -- Barry asked me to post this for him:
As a follow-up to Jim Staszıs comments on Connecticut Warblers, I believe
that the species is very likely signficantly under-recorded in this area,
due largely to its skulking habits and being almost invariably solitary. I
have always felt that the peak time for Connecticuts in this area is between
September 15 and October 10th. I checked my personal sightings of this
species over the last few years as follows, which bears this out:
2008 [so far!] 9/18, 9/20 & 9/21
2007 9/20 [1] and 10/4 [1]
2006 9/25 [1], 9/29 [1] and 10/2 [1]
2005 I was out of the country during much of Sept/Oct period.
2004 9/29 [1]
2003 9/15 [1] and 9/30 [1]
Unlike Jimıs experience, virtually all my birds have been seen/flushed from
overgrown meadows close-by either a wood lot or wood-edge. All but two of my
records have been of single individuals and not associated with any other
birds, the only exceptions being :
1) The bird seen on 9/21/08. This bird was in the trees of a thin wood edge
that is bordered by a very rough meadow. The bird was in a small mixed flock
of warblers. All of these birds were feeding very low down in the trees and,
in fact, 2 Black&White Warblers were feeding on the ground. Gail and I had
excellent views of the Connecticut as it walked down a low hanging branch
about four feet off the ground. We felt that it was about to fly down onto
the ground to feed but at this precise moment a dog walker came by and
flushed all the birds and we were unable to relocate the flock.
[2] Some years ago Ottavio Janni and I watched two Connecticut Warblers
actively consorting together in the same small bush in the meadow at the
ridge at Rock Creek Park. Interestingly one of these birds was a partial
albino.
From the above, any rough meadow type habitat bordered by trees or
shrubs/hedgerow would be a good place to look for this species. Examples of
this would be Layhill Park or the excellent meadows at Woodend [where
Connecticut has been seen in the past].
As this uncommon species can be a blocker for many birders, we usually
include any sightings in bold print. But it is probably a matter of looking
in the right places
Barry Cooper |